Theories and  
        causes of crime 
         
        Introduction 
        There is no one ‘cause’ of crime. Crime is a highly 
        complex phenomenon that changes across cultures 
        and across time. Activities that are legal in one 
        country (e.g. alcohol consumption in the UK) are 
        sometimes illegal in others (e.g. strict Muslim 
        countries). As cultures change over time, behaviours 
        that once were not criminalised may become 
        criminalised (and then decriminalised again – e.g. 
        alcohol prohibition in the USA). As a result, there is no 
        simple answer to the question ‘what is crime?’ and therefore no single answer to 
        ‘what causes crime?’ Different types of crime often have their own distinct causes. 
        (For more about definitions of crime see SCCJR What is Crime? You can also find 
        out about specific types of crime at: SCCJR Violence Against Women and Girls; 
        SCCJR Drug Crime; SCCJR Knife Crime) 
         
        This briefing provides an overview of some of the key criminological theories that 
        seek to explain the causes of crime; it is by no means an exhaustive list. Each of 
        the theories covered has its own strengths and weaknesses, has gaps and may only 
        be applicable to certain types of crime, and not others. There is no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ 
        theory. 
         
        The theories covered can be categorised into two main approaches: 
         
          1)  Biological theories 
          2)  Sociological theories 
         
                       
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              1) Biological theories 
               
              Biological explanations of crime assume that some people are ‘born criminals’, who 
              are physiologically distinct from non-criminals. The most famous proponent of this 
              approach is Cesare Lombroso.  
                                                                                                   
                                    Lombroso and Biological Positivism                             
                                                                                                   
                          th                                                                       
                 In the 19  Century, Italian prison psychiatrist Cesare Lombroso drew on           
                 the ideas of Charles Darwin and suggested that criminals were atavistic:          
                 essentially ‘evolutionary throwbacks’. He suggested that their brains were        
                 mal-developed or not fully developed. In his review of prisoners, he found        
                 that they shared a number of common physical attributes, such as sloping          
                 foreheads and receding chins. In so doing, Lombroso suggested that                
                 involvement in crime was a product of biology and biological characteristics:     
                 criminals were born that way. Lombroso’s theory is essentially a theory of        
                 biological positivism.                                                            
                                                                                                       
              Lombroso’s work has long since fallen out of favour. However, biological theories 
              have continued to develop. Rather than measuring physical features of the body, 
              contemporary approaches focus on: 
               
                    Biochemical conditions (e.g. linked to      Positivism: Influenced by the 
                     poor diet or hormone imbalance)             scientific discoveries of the 
                    Neurophysiological conditions (e.g.           th       th
                                                                 18  and 19  centuries, 
                     learning disabilities caused by brain       positivism is a research 
                     damage)                                     tradition that seeks to establish 
                    Genetic inheritance and/or abnormality      objective causes of individual 
                    Intelligence                                behaviour. 
                                                                  
              These attempts, to locate the causes of crime within the individual, suggest that 
              there are identifiable differences between offenders and non-offenders. In other 
              words, the criminal is ‘other’: in some way different or abnormal to everyone else.  
               
              More information on Lombroso’s theories 
              More information on contemporary biological and biosocial approaches 
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                 2) Sociological theories 
                  
                 Sociological approaches suggest that crime is shaped by factors external to the 
                 individual: their experiences within the neighbourhood, the peer group, and the 
                 family.  
                                     The Chicago School/Social Disorganisation Theory  
                    
                   Social disorganisation theory grew out of research conducted by sociologists at the 
                   University of Chicago in the 1920s and 1930s. It key proponents were Clifford R. 
                   Shaw and Henry D. McKay (1942), who used spatial mapping to examine the 
                   residential locations of juveniles referred to court. Shaw and McKay found that 
                   patterns of delinquency were higher in areas characterised by poor housing, poor 
                   health, socio-economic disadvantage and transient populations. This led them to 
                   suggest that crime was a function of neighbourhood dynamics and not due to 
                   individual actors and their actions.  
                    
                   Shaw and McKay explained these patterns by reference to the problems that 
                   accompanied immigration to Chicago at this time. They claimed that areas settled by 
                   newly arrived immigrants experienced a breakdown of social norms due to ethnic 
                   diversity and competing cultural traditions. Conventional institutions of social control 
                   were therefore weakened and unable to regulate the behaviour of local youths.  
                    
                  
                 Contemporary theories of crime, place and space include: 
                  
                        defensible space theory, which examines how the design of physical space is 
                         related to crime; 
                        broken windows theory, which looks the relationship between low level 
                         disorder and crime; and 
                        routine activities theory, which considers how opportunities to commit crime 
                         are shaped by between people’s everyday movements through space and 
                         time. 
                 More information on the Chicago School/Social Disorganisation Theory 
                 More information on contemporary theories of crime, place and space 
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                    Anomie/Strain Theory 
                          
        Anomie is a concept developed by one of the founding fathers of sociology, 
        Emile Durkheim, to explain the breakdown of social norms that often 
        accompanies rapid social change. American sociologist Robert Merton (1957) 
        drew on this idea to explain criminality and deviance in the USA. His theory 
        argues that crime occurs when there is a gap between the cultural goals of a 
        society (e.g. material wealth, status) and the structural means to achieve these 
        (e.g. education, employment). This strain between means and goals results in 
        frustration and resentment, and encourages some people to use illegitimate or 
        illegal means to secure success.  
         
        In short, strain theory posits that the cultural values and social structures of 
        society put pressure on individual citizens to commit crime. 
                                      
         
       Jock Young draws on Merton’s anomie/strain theory in his recent book, The 
         
       Exclusive Society (1999), locating crime in relation to both structural and cultural 
       processes. Structurally speaking, Young argues that the dismantling of the welfare 
       state, alongside increasing disparities between the rich and the poor, have served to 
       further exclude disadvantaged groups. This has occurred alongside high levels of 
       cultural inclusion. Contemporary consumer capitalism places greater emphasis on 
       conspicuous consumption and material success, intensifying feelings of deprivation 
       experienced by the less successful. (See section on ‘Relative deprivation’, below). 
        
       More information on strain theories  
       More information on the work of Jock Young 
        
        
                    
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